‘Misogynoir is a distraction’: Moya Bailey on why Kamala Harris (or any U.S. president) is not going to save us

In a 1975 keynote address at Portland State University, Nobel Prize winner and prolific American novelist Toni Morrison stated unequivocally: “The function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.”

Nearly 50 years later, author, activist, and professor Moya Bailey believes the same about misogynoir, especially when it comes to the historic nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris — a Black and South Asian woman — as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. When we trot out — or respond to — the standard fare about Harris’s dating past, laugh, or supposed role as “DEI candidate,” our attention is drawn away from the bigger issues we face. 

“If we’re not paying attention, we can get distracted by the vile and terrible misogynoiristic ways that Kamala has been represented in the press and then not pay attention to what we’ve seen, which is initially a lack of conversation about policy at all,” says Bailey, who coined the term misogynoir back in 2008 to describe the unique form of discrimination Black women face at the intersection of race and gender. “I think that we need to make sure that we don’t get trapped in these questions of representation and actually look at what is going to be possible and just what a U.S. president is expected to uphold and what’s a realistic expectation in terms of someone who’s actually going to change things in a progressive way.”

For many, Harris’s rise represents a significant milestone in the long battle for representation in U.S. politics. However, as Bailey points out, representation alone cannot — and will not — save democracy. It’s a necessary, but insufficient, condition for true inclusive governance.

“We have been sold a story — a narrative — that representation is going to be the thing that saves us. And what even a Barack Obama presidency showed us is that representation doesn’t necessarily mean the implementation of policies that actually fit or connect to those of us who are most marginalized,” says Bailey. “So I think we just have to be wary of the fact that there are ways that representation can mask some of the same problems that we have when you are leading an empire, and that is what the United States is. So when the war machine is set into motion, it doesn’t matter who you are if you’re at the helm.”

According to Bailey, anyone running for president of the United States is likely bought into the tenets of settler colonialism, and believes in the nation-state enough to want to be “quote-unquote in charge of it.”

She gives a topical example.

“So if we’re looking at the ways that the right — and sometimes the left — even really focuses on Kamala’s identity, then we’re missing this opportunity to talk about, what does it mean to still be giving Israel money, to be giving Israel weapons?” Bailey explains. “What does that mean in the context of the world that we claim that we want when we’re talking about peace and wanting joy? What does it mean that not everybody has access to that?”

Bailey encourages people to pay closer attention to their local elections and look at how governments are responding to climate disasters, such as Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

“How are your representatives really showing up, and are they the people who are showing up?” asks Bailey. “I think we put a lot of pressure on electoral politics, even down the ticket, and it’s a real question for me how political figures are actually showing up for their communities.”

In addition to voting in local elections, Bailey suggests people get more involved in their communities and grassroots organizing, where they can have a direct impact on the policies that affect their daily lives.

“I think people really want someone to come in and save them, and she’s not going to do it,” says Bailey. “And you know, the presidency as a position — that’s not a position that saves us.”

With less than a month until Election Day, it’s crucial to remember that misogynoir isn’t going anywhere — no matter what the outcome is. To combat the onslaught of racism and sexism, Bailey encourages Black women to find spots of respite and places where they can retreat.

“For me, that’s meant creating community with other Black women and nonbinary folks who are actually moving in ways that are challenging these perceptions and representations through the way that they create the spaces and images that they want to see,” she says. “For me, it’s about consuming cultural products and cultural productions that are created for us, by us, and also moving in spaces that are for us, by us.”